inspector of military schools. On 22 September Des Monts examined
Napoleon and found him qualified to enter the military school in Paris.
The only question now remaining was whether a place would be found.
Napoleon did not rate his chances highly, as he thought his lack of the
classical languages would stand between him and the Ecole Royale
Militaire in Paris. Fortunately, at this very juncture the Ministry of War
authorized a special intake of candidates outstanding in mathematics.
Early in October word came through that Napoleon and three
schoolfellows had been selected for the school in Paris; Lucien could have
the Brienne berth after all.
This was the end of Napoleon's naval ambitions, once so intense that
he actually thought of applying to the Royal Navy in England for a
cadetship. To this unlikely historical might-have-been can be added a
more sombre possibility. In expressing his continuing enthusiasm for the
Navy in 1784, Napoleon mentioned his ambition of sailing with the great
French navigator La Perouse, then preparing for a Pacific expedition to
rival those of Captain Cook. La Perouse sailed in 1785 but three years
later was shipwrecked with the loss of all hands at Vanikoro Island in the
south-west Pacific, between the Solomons and the New Hebrides. But for
an administrative decision in Paris, the great European conqueror could
easily have died in obscurity in an oceanic grave.
Napoleon and his three schoolfellows, whose names have been
preserved for history (Montarby de Dampierre, Castries de Vaux,
Laugier de Bellecour) accompanied by a monk (possibly Berton himself),
left Brienne on 17 October by water coach and, after joining the Seine at
Pont Marie, began to enter the suburbs at 4 p.m. on the 19th. The cadets
were allowed to linger until nightfall before entering the military school,
so Napoleon bought a novel from one of the quayside bookstalls, allowing
his comrade Castries de Vaux to pay. The choice of book was surely
significant: Gil Bias was the story of an impoverished Spanish boy who
rose to high political office. Then their religious chaperon insisted they
say a prayer in the church of St-Germain-des-Pres before entering the
Ecole Royale Militaire.
Built by the architect Gabriel thirteen years before, the Ecole Royale
was a marvel of Corinthian columns and Doric colonnades looking out on
to the Champ de Mars and already hailed as one of the sights of Paris.
Inside the building, carved, sculpted, painted and gilded walls, ceilings,
doors and chimney-pieces were picked out with a plethora of statues and
portraits of military heroes. The classrooms were papered in blue with
gold ornamentation; there were curtains at the windows and doors.
Students slept in a large dormitory warmed by earthenware stoves, and